[JURIST] UN human rights experts on arbitrary executions and torture on Tuesday urged [press release] the state of Texas and the US government to prevent the execution of Scott Panetti, who was sentenced to death for killing his parents-in-law in 1992. The experts contend that Panetti, who is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday, has a history of mental illness and that it would be a violation of international law to execute him. Panetti specifically suffers from undifferentiated schizophrenia, depression, brain dysfunction, delusions, arbitrary hallucinations and homicidal ideation towards his family. UN officials explained that the execution would be considered arbitrary and “inherently cruel” under international standards. In his 1995 trial, Panetti chose to waive his right to counsel and represent himself. UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, and arbitrary executions, Christof Heynes [official website], expressed his belief that Panetti’s choice to waive his counsel at trial “may have influenced the subsequent decisions of the courts.”

THIS DAY @ LAW

International Migrants Day

December 18 is International
Migrants Day [UN factsheet], marking the 1990 adoption of
the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All
Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.

Supreme Court upheld wartime detention of
Japanese-Americans

On December 18, 1944, the US Supreme Court decided
Korematsu v.
United States, upholding the wartime relocation
of Japanese Americans to internment camps.